A Rose With Thorns
by Scandalous Behavior
Summary: Spinelli and T.J. have new trials in the high school years that led to all new situations and perhaps all new loves...
1. Journey Home

A Rose With Thorns  
  
Chapter One: Journey Home  
  
Written by: Scandalous Behavior  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Small spaces, plush chairs, cramped aisles and awful food while thousands of feet above ground was how she would always remember the inside of an airplane as. Not the carrying conversations that seemed to blend with those belonging to others, the immense feeling of being so insignificant when in flight high above ground and water, or the sense of wanting to write into words what her mind wouldn't let her speak.  
  
Almost like turning into a poetic dreamer, she mused, like Mikey.  
  
That thought produced a grin on her otherwise passive facial expression, causing the older man sitting next to her to glance sideways behind his trendy eyeglasses while involved in the latest copy of the Wall Street Journal. Absent-mindedly aware that she was being observed she didn't do as she would normally have given if it had been three months ago, which would be to say some very demanding comment on what he thought he was looking at and enjoy the reddening of his embarrassed cheeks that would come from her raised voice level, instead she looked out the window ignoring the situation.  
  
Had she really changed so much in so little time, she wondered. Three months wasn't that long in fact it felt more like a week. Having been against going anywhere in the first place she was sure her turn around was bound to shock her friends when she returned, as much if not more than it had shocked her parents who agreed whole-heartedly to her decision when she called a week and a half into the vacation to announce her chosen path for the summer. After being brought into that whole new arrangement she had no choice but to get with the program or be forced to spend the summer with the most heinous self-centered girl that made the 'Ashleys' look like her long lost friends. Well at least in comparison, Spinelli thought, no way did she feel close to them least of all the leader of that Cosmo Magazine devouring group. The girl had turned everything they did this summer into a war zone. Never had she come up against such a foe that wouldn't back down. When it came down to it she was Ashley Spinelli, the punkette. The girl that no one messed with unless they had a serious death wish. Why that one girl had become her nemesis she didn't even know all that she could let herself think, and thinking it made her reconsider the sanity of the person who had told her, was that Francesca was jealous. Ridiculous. How could Francesca be jealous of her? It was un-real, un-thinkable, and un-speakable that the Diva of Italy was actually jealous of a tomboy.  
  
Italy. Still remembering the conversation that sent her there which had started due to her parents flat refusal to let her go to Wrestling Camp instead dropping a bomb on her that she was still feeling the repercussions of.  
  
~3 months and a day earlier~  
  
"What do you mean I can't go?" Ashley Spinelli demanded hotly.  
  
Florence and Robert Spinelli glanced at each other, sharing one of those dreaded 'parent-unity' looks and then both of them turned their faces to the enraged brunette standing in the doorway of the Spinelli's kitchen. Her hands were on her hips, in her normal Don't-Mess-With-Me position, and her chocolate-brown eyes searched their expressions for weakness on this subject, yet it was not to be.  
  
"Pookie," Flo started, in her motherly tone, "you are too old to be going to a camp that is mainly boy populated and it is time you broadened your horizons."  
  
Spinelli glanced at her mom like she was speaking gibberish and gave her dad a Please-Translate look.  
  
"What your mother is trying to say, Princess, is that we think you need to start acting you age," Bob explained, practically seeing the steam coming out his daughter's ears, "not that we don't love you the way you are it's just we think that it's time for a change."  
  
"What about what I think or does that even matter? I've been going there since I was seven years old. It's tradition. They expect me there, I have a championship to uphold."  
  
Flo winced at the thought of her daughter wrestling around on the floor with another wrestler, most likely male, that would injure her poor Pookie.  
  
"And the fact that you do concerns us. You are seventeen, Ashley, going to be eighteen and a senior in High School. Too old to be a child and too young to be an adult. What we are going to do is for the best and we honestly think it would be great for you."  
  
Concern lit up Spinelli's eyes, as she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her normally non-interfering parents were interfering with her life and going to screw it all up.  
  
"What are you trying to get at?" Spinelli finally frustrated demanded.  
  
Bob had to admit that maybe they were going about this wrong, although how to break this sort of news wasn't exactly written in any known parent rulebook. He couldn't explain it to himself about the actions a man takes when he has difficulty in his marriage. His wife sat to the right of him at the small round kitchen table, her bright red head seen out of the corner of his eye.  
  
"Princess, your mother and I have something we need to tell you," Bob paused as Spinelli's impatient posture leaned against the arch of the kitchen entrance, "something that I should have told you years ago."  
  
Flo knew of her husband's reluctance to bring up the subject and her own at having to tell of it but she knew for the sake of their independent tough- as-nails daughter it was for the best that she knew.  
  
"You have a sister, Ashley," Flo announced, "She lives in Italy."  
  
A bomb would have been more expected than this news. Spinelli's eyes filled with the incredible discovery of having another sibling other than her older brother, Joey.  
  
"What? Why...How..Why doesn't she live with us?" Spinelli finally managed to get out as she came closer to the table, seeing her father swallow uncomfortably.  
  
"You have a sister, Princess, but she isn't your full sister. Antonia is your half-sister."  
  
"Half-sister? But you and mom have been only married to each other unless you are keeping something else from me."  
  
"No, no, Pookie. We have only been married to each other." Flo interfered, before her daughter's over-active imagine took over.  
  
"When your mother and I had Joey, we had a time when we didn't live with each other," Bob cleared his throat, "we were separated for almost a year when I met another woman and she gave birth to your sister."  
  
"You had an affair?!" Spinelli accused, taking an involuntary step back.  
  
"It wasn't something that I was proud of, I still loved your mother and things got a little out of hand."  
  
"I understand and accept what happened, Ashley," Flo glanced towards her husband, "I wasn't all that happy with him for a long time because of it but then we had you and it's not something that can be taken back."  
  
"Yesterday I got a call from your sister and she wants to get to know you, wants to invite you to live with her in Rome for the summer."  
  
Spinelli honestly didn't know what to attack first, so being as she was always more inclined to act on her anger she glared at them both for the betrayal she felt.  
  
"You expect me to just accept the fact that my parents weren't together but still married when my dad goes and knocks up some woman who gives birth to a sister I never knew I had and now you want me to travel clear across the ocean to Europe where they probably still use clay to build things to see this left out piece of my life?" Her anger was taking over and as Flo stood Spinelli backed away, not trusting herself towards either of them right at the moment.  
  
"Sweetheart we never meant to hurt you."  
  
"You might not have, but you did. How could you keep this from me?"  
  
As Bob pulled away from the table, the anguish clear in his little girl's eyes too much to bear, she turned on the heel of her thick booted feet and the echoing sound of the boots meeting the wooden planks of the staircase sounded in the deafening quiet kitchen.  
  
~  
  
Throwing herself on her bed, she gave into the tears that welled up in her eyes at being left out of something so big in her life. To have a sister, it was something she secretly always wondered about. Not to hide questions only an older sister could answer when mother's opinion wasn't the one you were looking for and the closest thing you had to a sister was as inexperienced at life as you were. An older sister was experience, the whole been-there-done-that scenario. Now it was coming true what she always wished for and she couldn't find it in her heart to be anything but upset, confused, and hurt about being left in the dark.  
  
Rolling off her bed, she grabbed behind her closed bedroom door for her old worn bomber jacket and threw open her bedroom door. Going down the stairs faster than she ever had before she saw the surprise in her parents' eyes but ignored it as she pushed open the screen door, stocking down the couple steps of the porch to the sidewalk. In more of a run, than a walk, she headed to the place where she could always find the perfect person to talk to. A couple houses down from her own belonged to the Detweilers', where her best friend since kindergarten lived. Wiping at her eyes with the back of her jacket sleeves just to make sure no stray tears ran down her cheeks, she wasn't keeping eyes up and when she finally managed to glance up again the sight before her was enough to make her break down right then and there.  
  
In front of the Detweiler's house, sitting on the curb with the high school letterman jacket over his broad shoulders, head hidden beneath a trademark red cap was her best friend, T.J. No one could mistake his figure for anyone else but what shocked her was the person to his right, facing Spinelli. The perfect, not-a-hair-out-of-place blond with triumph clear in her eyes was the gray and pink clad figure of Ashley Armbruster. Spinelli's nemesis, enemy and foe. With none other than her perfect pink lips locked with those belonging to T.J. His face wasn't turned to see the stone-like figure of Spinelli not standing but twenty feet from them, but she knew his blue eyes would be closed, as he was not one to keep his eyes open in a kiss if her memory from fourth grade was any sort of reference.  
  
Ashley A.'s eyes were slightly open so that she knew exactly who was watching the scene and a small smile was instantly hidden as she again involved herself in the kiss with one very distraught T.J. Detweiler. Having Spinelli come onto the scene just at that moment was almost payment enough for offering the comfort that she was to T.J, though his lips were seemingly just as practiced as her own and fit perfectly. Not slobbering all over her or inserting his unaccomplished tongue down her throat like so many boys tried. It was a simple, sweet, just touching by lips kiss and it rooted Spinelli to the concrete. Knowing, as many did, that Spinelli was in love with T.J it didn't surprise her in the least to see the jealousy spark into the brunette's eyes. What did surprise her was that Spinelli didn't rage at that moment, didn't march right up to her surgically perfected nose and punch it in for laying lips on someone that Spinelli considered hers alone. If her eyes were any judge it seemed that Spinelli had been crying prior to this, the stained stream evident on the girl's darker toned cheeks. Pushing aside having seen Spinelli with a look of close to that of female emotion she continued to kiss the remarkably apt pupil of Detweiler, blocking out Spinelli's unwelcomed presence.  
  
The trance that seemed to make Spinelli lock her body to the spot was broken as Ashley A.'s eyes were no longer on her and turning she ran. Not clear to where she was intent on running to only knowing it had to be anywhere as long as it was far, far away from there. Her suddenly heavy footed steps made thud sounds as they landed on the cement sidewalk, her eyes emptying themselves of locked up waterworks that seemed to have burst into a flood that the only thing that stopped her travels was running full length into a wall. A wall that instantly reached out to steady her, pull her a little distance from it and look down with pure concern.  
  
Michael Blumberg, the boy built like a solid wall, was taking in the broken- hearted mess that was Ashley Spinelli. Seeing that her eyes were filled more with tears than with a clear vision of what she had ran into, her leaned his head down so that she could take in his image.  
  
"Mikey?" her voice was hoarse and so choked up that he was surprised she could talk.  
  
"Spinelli, what's wrong?"  
  
"I...I can't." The tone of her voice was filled with pain that he pulled her to him, a arm around her waist as they walked and coming to a bench that sat in a small park not a block from where she had run into him, right outside of Kelso's Corner Store, no less and closer to his house than her own, he made her sit down and comforted the petite girl as best he could.  
  
Never in his long memory had he ever seen Spinelli cry as deep and as sad as the tears that ran down her unblemished cheeks right then. Sitting beside her, he let her lean into him as she buried her face in her hands sobbing. Finally after five minutes of letting her cry, his shaggy blond head moved to take in the depressed sight. Taking his left hand, he lifted her face from her hands to meet her eyes with his.  
  
"Are you going to tell me what's wrong or do we have to play twenty questions?" Mikey wondered, thinking now was not the time for poetry.  
  
"My parents,." Spinelli sniffled and cursed herself under her breath for acting like such a girl, "are sending me to Europe for the summer."  
  
Mikey smiled at her, shaking his head at her tears over that.  
  
"It's not the end of the world, the sunset beacons and so the call must be answered." Mikey's lyric way of putting words was making its way back into his conversation skills.  
  
"You don't understand.." Realizing she couldn't tell him, at least not the last part, "I have a sister and my parents are sending me to see her."  
  
"A sister? But I thought it was only you and Joey?"  
  
"So did I. The tricks some parents pull, huh?" Spinelli was calming down by talking out loud though her heart still hurt from seeing the guy she loved with the girl she detested.  
  
"This is great news, Spinelli, you have every right to be upset about it but I don't think those were happy tears you were crying, were they?"  
  
"One day, Mikey, you might see into something you might hate to get the answer to," Spinelli told her friend who looked like a guy to be afraid of but wouldn't hurt a fly.  
  
A question entered his eyes but she shook her head.  
  
"I should be happy about, I am happy about it," Wiping her tears off with her fingers, "I don't know what's wrong with me."  
  
"Not everyday that someone finds out they have a sister," Mikey said, "do you know her name?"  
  
"Antonia and she lives in Rome."  
  
"Italy. One of the great ancient societies that are still evident in every stone and brick."  
  
"They don't use clay?" Spinelli asked, softly.  
  
A teasing light entered his kind eyes.  
  
"No, the Romans were far too advanced to use clay, though that's what brick kinda becomes before it is brick and if you ask Gretchen.."  
  
"I want a simple answer not a hour lecture on the history of the Roman Empire, Mikey." Spinelli referred to Gretchen Grundler's high I.Q. that made any simple thing into a lesson that would do a college professor justice.  
  
Chucking, he nodded his understanding before seeing she was looking better and they walked her to her house. Getting inside after telling Mikey goodnight, asking her parents about her sister now more at ease with it and let herself soak in the information to make herself block the reoccurring image of T.J and Ashley A. in her mind.  
  
~  
  
Calling Gretchen that night, Spinelli pulled clothes from her closet and in true Spinelli fashion tossed them into the two suitcases she would be taking with her. Placing the cordless phone between her shoulder and head, she packed while she talked.  
  
"It is remarkable news to learn of this new sibling is it not?" Gretchen's voice came from the opposite end of the phone line.  
  
"Yeah. Dad let me talk to her right before I called you," Spinelli adjusted the phone as she threw socks and underwear into the suitcase over her shoulder, watching them land safely in the suitcase by the mirror's reflection which was attached to her dresser, "she sounds cool. Accent and all but I'm still kinda worried about the Italian language thing. I don't exactly speak even Spanish that I'm learning at school that well, you know?"  
  
"Not to mention proper English." Came Gretchen's remark.  
  
"Hey, thanks, Gretch, next time I need to feel more self-conscious about my talking I know just who to call," Spinelli sarcastically replied.  
  
"Has your travel plans been finalized?" Gretchen switched to another topic easily.  
  
Spinelli halted in front of her bedroom window as she saw Ashley A.'s rich- girl car pass by and craned her neck to see if he was inside it with the infuriating blond, almost making the phone fall to the floor. Picking it up before it hit her bedroom carpet she put it back to her ear and yanked the curtains closed on her window.  
  
"Spinelli?"  
  
"Yeah, Gretch," Spinelli stated, walking to zip the smaller of the two leather suitcases that had seen better days closed which sat on her bed, "they said tomorrow morning, early."  
  
"That soon?"  
  
"You sound as surprised as I was," Spinelli twisted the zipper on the bigger suitcase, that was stubbornly refusing to shut that she was climbing on top of it and landed on it with a soft thump, then swiftly zipped it closed, "but seems she has some big deal happening the day after tomorrow so it has to be tomorrow."  
  
"Doesn't give us much time to tell the guys."  
  
"No!" Spinelli surprised herself in her quick announcement, "I mean, I thought I'd just tell you and you could tell the guys. Mikey already knows about my going there, just not when."  
  
"Have you told T.J?"  
  
"Um..he wasn't home when I went over to tell him." Spinelli lied, though it was kinda true in her mind.  
  
"Shouldn't you try again in the morning, you won't be seeing any of us for three entire months, Spinelli?"  
  
"I'll try, Gretch, but if I can't you'll tell him and the other guys for me, right?"  
  
Pausing, Gretchen debated why Spinelli's tone was so reluctant to even broach the subject to T.J later this evening or the coming morning.  
  
"If you do not inform him I will have no choice of course. Your absence is hard to miss."  
  
Covering the phone with her palm so Gretch didn't hear her sigh of relief, she snatched her hand back quickly.  
  
"Thanks, Gretch. Listen, I'll call you when I get there, okay? They gave me a calling card so your parents won't yell at you for dragging up the phone bill."  
  
"They would not complain about it."  
  
"I know, but still. Hey, Gretch?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"I'm going to miss you."  
  
Smiling on her end, the genius spoke into the phone, "I'll miss you too, Spinelli."  
  
With that Spinelli took the phone in her hand and pushed the END button. Glancing to the curtains that blocked her semi-clear view of T.J.'s house, she closed her eyes.  
  
"I just can't face him right now." She said quietly into the room.  
  
~  
  
The morning sun rose and through Gretchen Grundler's computer activation system the opened the curtains as soon as the bright sun rays hit them, filling the room with sunshine to the bed that the sleeping scientist slept in. Pushing a stray wavy strand of red hair out of her face, she pushed the covers off her body and padded to the bathroom for her morning shower. A feeling of apprehension stuck as she realized just what she had talked to Spinelli about last night and deep down had the knowledge that the brunette had not talked to T.J. about her leaving. The reason for her friend's reluctance to tell the leader of their group still puzzled her as out of all six of them Spinelli and T.J. were the closest to each other.  
  
Dressing in her now customary outfit of a ankle long blue skirt, a long sleeved button down white blouse and pulled her hair back with a head band, she continued her morning routine and went to eat breakfast. Her parents had been up for hours and neither one was at the table, the note-pad voice messaging system, a project she completed for extra credit her freshman year, was sitting at her designated seat and picking it up, she read over it. That T.J. had called already this morning and wanted to see her and the rest of the group at his house in half an hour. Nodding that at least she could get it over with early, the red headed genius finished her breakfast and headed to the Detweiler Residence.  
  
Arriving at the house that was as familiar to her as her own, Gretchen turned off the engine to her car, a present for her seventeenth birthday after winning finals for Energy Conservation in Washington D.C, headed to the front door only to see Vince wave to her at the side of the house, opening the wood gate to let her into the back yard. Passing by the six foot one athlete, Gretchen's eyes sought out where T.J. was and if the brunette was there. Disappointment hit as everyone was now here minus Spinelli.  
  
T.J.'s appearance caught her eye, as beneath his usually mischievous eyes were dark bags from lack of sleep and his entire posture spoke of some great ordeal that he had recently gone through. Mikey was sitting to T.J.'s right with quiet Gus to his left on the deck of the backyard. Vince's shadow came over her right shoulder and his eyes met hers in the same question they seemed to share about their friend.  
  
Glancing up from under the red cap, T.J.'s blue eyes sought out those of his friends and noticed that Spinelli had not yet shown up although he had called the Spinelli household and left a message on the answering machine.  
  
"Where's Spin?" he asked, then seeing looks exchanged between Gretchen and Mikey, added, "and what aren't you two telling me?"  
  
Gretchen gave in, sighing, "Spinelli won't be arriving today, and she is right now on a plane to Italy for the summer."  
  
Four identical looks of shock registered on the four males. Mikey was the one to recover first.  
  
"She didn't say that it would be today."  
  
"Hold the phone," Vincent LaSalle interfered, "you both knew that Spinelli was leaving but she didn't tell the rest of us?"  
  
"Spinelli found out last night that she has a sister that lives in Italy," Gretchen explained, "and in that same time was told that she would be leaving first thing this morning. It didn't leave her much time to tell anyone anything."  
  
"But she told you and Mikey." T.J.'s voice rang of accusation.  
  
"I was run into by Spinelli outside Kelso's right after her parents told her, she was a little upset," Mikey said, "after talking to her I walked her home, though she didn't tell me when she was leaving."  
  
"She informed me last night when after she had returned from talking to Mikey that the date for her departure was this morning," Gretchen saw T.J. taking this all in, "she said she came by last night before she left to talk to Mikey but no one was home."  
  
T.J. paused. Praying that if Spinelli had come by last night that it wasn't when Ashley A. had been there.  
  
"Is she going to be back soon?" Gustav Griswold spoke up.  
  
"Afraid not, Gus, she is spending the entire summer in Italy."  
  
"I guess it's for the best then," T.J. mused, "as my parents told me last night that I'll be sending the summer with my Uncle Adam in Los Angeles."  
  
"Why there, T.J?" Vince wondered.  
  
Bowing his head, the shock of what he had been told still raw on his nerves.  
  
"My parents are getting a divorce."  
  
Amazement froze the other four, not expecting anything like that to be said from T.J.  
  
"Twenty-five years of marriage and now they are getting a divorce," his voice was bitter and not at all the tone they any of them had ever heard him use.  
  
Unable to really say anything, as what did you say to a friend whose family was breaking apart when yours was stable. No words could make it go away. They all stood there for what felt like an eternity and in their company it was comfort enough to the leader of the group that they cared enough to stay. His mind drifted to thoughts of Spinelli.  
  
Why didn't you find some way to tell me, Spin, he thought.  
  
~  
  
The flight landed on Italian soil and the rocky landing woke Spinelli out of a deep sleep. Grabbing her carry on bag that was under her seat, she followed the rest of the group out, glaring at two other teenage girls that were giggling and stopped dead when Spinelli's eyes focused on them.  
  
No one should be that cheerful after a fourteen-hour flight, she thought and was satisfied that they shut up with one look.  
  
Heading out of the terminal and into the airport, Spinelli caught sight of a sign with her name on it. A shock to her system that the girl holding it was about four inches taller than she was, with lighter brown hair but other than that they could pass for twins the resemblance so striking. Although the older girl was dressed in what looked like designer white jeans and a colorful red and yellow tight shirt, hair pushed back from her face with expensive sunglasses. Next to the girl was a guy that had to have come right out of the pages of Playgirl. Dark tanned, pitch-black hair that fell into his left eye and what eyes, a pure jungle green. Making sure her mouth wasn't opened from the surprise of these two or that she found another guy that she found attractive, she headed towards them.  
  
"You must be Spinelli," the girl spoke, a light Italian accent only adding to her loveliness, "I'm Antonia."  
  
"Who else would she be, Toni," the man beside her teased with a surprising American speech pattern, "the girl looks just like you. I'm Rafaele Viscardi, but call me Rafe."  
  
Introduced to them both, Spinelli finally found her tongue.  
  
"Spinelli," she greeted, "and don't ask to call me by anything else."  
  
Rafe winked at her as Antonia smiled.  
  
"That was how I was told you liked to be called," Antonia explained, "I would not like to lose my life so young to you by calling you by your first name, little sister."  
  
"And should I call you Antonia or Toni?" Spinelli asked.  
  
"Call her Toni," Rafe replied, "Antonia's a little too stuffy for even me."  
  
"Thanks, Rafe." The older girl glared.  
  
Spinelli had to smile at the two of them. They were obviously very comfortable around each other and with a saddening thought, reminded her of herself and T.J.  
  
"Shall we go get your luggage, amore mio?" Rafe asked Spinelli.  
  
At the Italian used, Spinelli looked to Toni for help.  
  
"Seems Rafe just came up with your nickname," Toni grinned, "he called you little butterfly."  
  
Raising an eyebrow at the much taller and older man, Rafe only laughed at Spinelli's look of confusion.  
  
"Don't know whether to beat me up for calling you that or accept it as a compliment, eh, Spinelli?"  
  
"Something like that."  
  
"Stop teasing her, Rafe and just go get her luggage."  
  
"As you wish."  
  
As he walked away, Toni rolled her eyes.  
  
"Rafe is my boyfriend, he lives in my house that I hope you will come to think of as your house as well."  
  
"So just the three of us?"  
  
"Yes, now how about I let you talk about yourself for a while so we can start getting to know each other."  
  
Spinelli had a feeling she was going to like having an older sister.  
  
In the next three months it seemed to pass in a flash. The Villa that Toni and Rafe lived in was right on the Coast, so they both were great swimmer and sailors, which Rafe was determined to make Spinelli into. Finding out that her sister was a fashion model; a very well known fashion model was a little too much for her to accept. Being around the other Ashleys' caused her to have little respect for that kind of thing but attending a photo shoot with Toni gave her a whole new perspective on it. A lot of work went into a shoot and the photographer, a rather young guy by the name of Lorenzo Maiellano, expected perfection in every shot. Toni said that all photographers were tyrants but Lorenzo was semi-new to the craft and still had some emotions left.  
  
One photo shoot that took place when Spinelli had been there a week was the first time she met the girl who would be the only wrong thing with her visit. A young girl, same age as Spinelli, by the name of Francesca Dibenedetto. Having long silky black hair to her waist, with slightly slanted eyes that made her plain dirt brown eyes look exotic, and she was the embodiment of being self-centered. To find out that Francesca was also a model wasn't surprising what was came when Francesca was introduced to Spinelli and Toni said that Francesca was her cousin on her mother's side. Thankfully no blood was between Francesca and Spinelli, although it came over the next two months that someone's was going to be spilt and it wasn't going to be Spinelli's. Francesca was not only self-centered but also obsessed with Rafe, who was twenty-four and entirely too old for the girl besides him being completely in love with Toni. Toni was twenty-one years old, almost four years older than Spinelli, and the perfect match for New York raised Rafe.  
  
What really got Francesca to be such a pain was when Lorenzo came into the studio early when Rafe was helping set up, that Toni got the idea to throw pillows at him with Spinelli's help and as Lorenzo watched, he took out his digital camera and took pictures of the girls in the pillow fight battle, looking care free that he surmised that Spinelli had just as much if not more potential to be a photographers dream to shoot. With the same bone structure as her sister but with a tougher edge that softened, he was surprised she hadn't been sought after with offers. When asked about this, both Rafe and Toni were not amazed to hear that Spinelli had been entered into a beauty pageant in fourth grade by the terrible 'Ashleys' and won by being herself. Coming into the studio a little time afterwards to see Lorenzo, the ice-princess he longed after made her objection at having an amateur being shot known in a not-so understanding tone.  
  
"If you are going to let this, quell' animale, be modeled than I do not see the reason for me to even work in this industry any more."  
  
Spinelli whispered into Rafe's ear, "I get the last part of what she called me what was the first?"  
  
"She called you a wild animal."  
  
"Okay," Spinelli walked right up to the girl and with a open hand, slapped her hard across the face, "now listen to be, you vain manipulator, I've been called worst things by not much better people than you but I draw the line at this. You have no reason to take your anger out on Lorenzo for taking a couple shots of me with my sister, unless you think of me as competition," Spinelli paused, "do you, Francesca?"  
  
Turning her head to glare straight into the glacier that was in Spinelli's eyes, the girl 'humphed'.  
  
"I do not think of you as competition, Spinelli, I see you only as someone not even fit to wipe by boots."  
  
Toni gasped at Francesca saying such a thing.  
  
"I wouldn't care to wipe your boots, Francesca since you are the type of person who isn't fit to be around others. You try to break up my sister and Rafe because you lust after something you can't have and wouldn't understand even if you tried. They are in love. A four-letter word that I bet you've never said to anyone in your entire life. Maybe to your clothes designer but that's it."  
  
Francesca had the grace to look mildly ashamed.  
  
"Now back off, Barbie before you get more than an open handed slap and I promise you," Spinelli took a step forward, "that when I hit you that precious face of yours is going to take blunt of it."  
  
Francesca turned on her four-inch heels and left. Rafe was laughing out loud by this time and Toni was grinning although she knew she shouldn't have let her sister go off like that.  
  
"So, anyone else want to start something?"  
  
That got all of them, including the softhearted Lorenzo to laugh.  
  
Francesca didn't give up, only made her more determined but she knew better than to face off against her cousin's half-sister. Lorenzo convinced Spinelli to let him do a one-time photo shoot as Toni was thrilled to have a reason to help Spinelli out with her wardrobe and style her hair. Asking her younger sister about her clothes, Spinelli shrugged.  
  
"Never saw the reason to be fashionable, that's an Ashley trait."  
  
"But it never hurts to at least look nice, does it?"  
  
"I guess. Haven't really thought about it."  
  
"Not even for that special guy back home?"  
  
"Who?"  
  
"I think you called him T.J.?"  
  
Glancing away from Toni, she answered, "I don't think I have to worry about where T.J.'s interest is."  
  
Toni didn't push the subject but got Rafe to help literally pick up Spinelli throwing her over his shoulder into a beauty shop. Taking out the ponytail that Spinelli always kept her hair in now, its length to the middle of her back, the beautician tisked over Spinelli's hair as Toni stood off to the side making sure to add suggestions and keep her kid- sister from bolting. As the cutting started, Spinelli winced and then calmed as Rafe started talking about worse things they could be doing to her, making her laugh. Soon her hair was just a couple inches past her shoulders, her head feeling lighter and then Toni instructed the woman to cut an inch width of hair in the front of Spinelli's face to be chin- length, then taking out the a small bottle had the woman take Spinelli into the back. When they came out fifty minutes later the part of Spinelli's hair that was cut to frame her face was a dark purple that complimented her.  
  
Shopping was a whole different can of worms. Rafe was made to come with them, even though he protested more than Spinelli had. Sending Spinelli in dressing rooms with clothes, having her come out to have them give judgment by the time she was done, they had gone to give shops two of which Spinelli had heard were major designers and sought after clothes back home.  
  
"Vio siete bella." Rafe told the girl that was already a sister to him, as they went into the beautiful Villa that night.  
  
"I am not beautiful, Rafe," Spinelli honestly replied, "I never was and never will be."  
  
Toni and Rafe knew that she would never see herself as beautiful until the one person whose opinion mattered spoke those words. Toni had been the same way.  
  
A hobby that Spinelli found out she had talent for was painting. Remembering back in elementary school when she got so caught up in a drawing that she was using the black top as her canvas and her friends were trying to keep everyone from walking or doing anything on it, she found that any sort of drawing calmed her down. At home and in school she welded which was kind of an art, according to Rafe. Singing also was something she found herself doing while relaxing. Both took her mind off things, which any girl could say was a good thing.  
  
The day that Spinelli was to leave to go back home, she hugged both of them for the first time. Rafe handed her two sketchbooks and Toni slipped the amethyst she always wore around her neck that was set inside a small butterfly made of silver on a silver chain over Spinelli's head.  
  
"It's brought me luck, maybe it'll bring you some."  
  
When Spinelli got on the plane, waved goodbye to them from the window seat she sat at. Thankful that she had met two new very important people in her life and also glad to be going home again as well.  
  
~Presently~  
  
Her eyes had closed for an instant only to now again be wide-awake as the Captain's voice came over the intercom to announce their arrival. Touching the butterfly that was around her neck, she wondered what it was going to be like to see everyone again after being gone for so long.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Next Chapter coming soon...  
  
~Scandal~  
  
November 15-16, 2001 


	2. School Begins

A Rose With Thorns  
  
Chapter Two: School Begins  
  
Written by: Scandalous Behavior  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
In two separate houses, separated by some hundred feet two seventeen year old teenagers woke up with the foreboding thought of having to go to school. One was a petite brunette more known for her temper and fist solving ways than being level headed and the other was a light blond-brown haired guy whose schemes were well known in their town. Neither had seen each other in little over three months and had no idea how much the other one had changed.  
  
  
  
Ashley Spinelli groaned at the repeating annoying sound of her alarm going off, her fist slamming down on the small turn off switch. Rolling out of bed, she half-asleep walked to the bathroom, turning on the shower and climbing in. Fifteen minutes later the water was turned off and she proceeded to dry her hair. Combing it back and then combing the pieces that framed her face down she was looking at the hairstyle she was still getting used to. After having it for a month you'd think I'd be used to the coloring and shortness, Spinelli told herself, or used to letting it down instead of styling it into a ponytail although it was still long enough to do that she wasn't going to today. The shock of her parents' faces when they saw that her hair was no longer so long and not all one color wore off as both agreed it looked good on her. Hard to believe she had only been back two days and most of that time was spent sleeping, jet lag was a bitch. Having called Gretchen the day before, they were going to go to school in Spinelli's new wheels. A present that her parents had gifted with her yesterday morning, a beautiful black 4-wheel drive Jeep convertible. Obviously Toni had told her parents how much she loved driving Rafe's own Jeep and gotten one for her. It was unexpected that they would be so generous but when she went to thank them both of them stopped her. No need to thank them, she had earned the Jeep. How, she had questioned, when she'd been gone all summer. They only smiled and left her alone with her vehicle. Never look a gift horse in the mouth, wasn't that how the saying went. Besides with it getting colder she was going to need wheels and she doubted her parents were going to let her borrow their truck when they've flat refused since she turned sixteen and got her license.  
  
Moving back into her room, her terry cloth robe tied around her body, she threw open her closet and saw that her mother had done what she said she was going to. Put and arranged all her new clothes in the closet when she had been on the phone talking to Gretchen, then Mikey, followed by Vince and Gus. T.J. still hadn't been back from L.A. so she had to wait to talk to him since all four had agreed that what he needed to tell her should come from him directly. Decisions, decisions, she thought looking at the full closet. Not one single thing she had owned clothing wise was still in her room. Flo Spinelli had cleaned out her closet while she had been away and given everything minus what she had taken with her to Salvation Army. Seems that part of her going away had been plotted when it came to her new clothes and hair. Taking out a pair of light colored blue jeans, a deep purple near to black three quarters length sleeved shirt with a dark gray zipper down the front light cotton vest with a hood to go over it she got dressed, taking out her new black leather boots that added two inches to her five foot three stature she pulled them on grabbed her necklace off the dresser slipping it over her head she grabbed her black leather jacket that came to mid-hip and designed to be feminine. Passing the hallway mirror on her way downstairs she had to admit she looked nothing like the Spinelli that had left. Toni did have a point about dressing nice and this was about as nice as she could get. Though she had brought three dresses back with her she doubted she'd ever wear them, she drew a line at wearing a dress out in public.  
  
Bob spotted his transformed daughter before his wife and appraised her outfit. She looked like a fashion plate off one of those magazines that his wife read but still managed to come off as pure Spinelli.  
  
"Hey Princess, ready for the first day of school?"  
  
"About as ready as I can be," Spinelli arched an eyebrow, "don't think you'd and mom reconsider my need for more sleep?"  
  
"'Fraid not."  
  
Snapping her fingers as if that was what she was counting on, he grinned.  
  
"We never did ask you how much damage you did to your sister's credit card," Bob wondered slyly, "your mother told me you had enough clothes to cloth three people."  
  
"Blame Toni, she's the clothing expert that thinks I needed all that."  
  
"Not that you're complaining now, right, Pookie?" Flo entered the kitchen and went to pour coffee.  
  
"Yeah, it wasn't so bad."  
  
"See how vain she's become we just might have created a monster." Flo teased lightly, knowing that nothing would ever make Spinelli vain in any way.  
  
"Hey guys?"  
  
Both her parents looked to their youngest child.  
  
"I don't agree with how it happened, how Toni was born," Spinelli saw the two of them look a little guilty, "but I wouldn't trade having her for anything."  
  
"Glad you and your sister got along so great, Pookie, really."  
  
"Okay, enough of this," Spinelli picked up her backpack that was always next to the kitchen door, "see you later."  
  
Running out to her car, she turned it on and drove to Gretchen's without a look out the rear view mirror to the boy also getting into his Ford Ranger driving the opposite direction.  
  
~  
  
Driving into the parking lot faster than was needed, Spinelli turned into a parking space in the middle, not too close or too far from Washington High School and saw Gretchen's face express relief.  
  
"Gee, am I really that bad at driving, Gretch?" Spinelli teased, jumping out.  
  
"Let's just say I will be glad when snow falls."  
  
Grabbing her backpack from behind her seat, Spinelli saw the denim clad Gretchen, a ankle long skirt with buttons down the center of it with a white button down blouse and denim jacket lined with wool for warmth as it was already forty degrees outside. Gretchen had her hair pulled back on each side of her head with simple gold clips. Simple yet elegant was how Spinelli always thought of Gretch's dressing patterns. Still with thick- framed glasses and a serious but smiling face she hadn't changed that much since fourth grade. The registered shock that showed up on Gretch's face when she pulled up in front of her house was enough to make Spinelli laugh, seeing as how she never really gave much thought to what she dressed like before.  
  
Walking towards the two-story brick building of their resident high school, Spinelli took it all in that nothing about it had changed. Kids still riding buses, being dropped off by parents, or in their own cars with passengers. Guys goofing off on the grass lawn with the sidewalk a potential hazard to anyone who actually tried to have a direct line to the double-door entrance. First year here the first thing a kid did was find as many alternative routes of entering the school as possible unless you wanted to be trampled by jocks, preppies, rebels, or had a need to become part of the scenery.  
  
"Miss this?" Spinelli asked, waving her hand to the growing landscape of kids.  
  
"Yes," Gretchen admitted truthfully although she had spent her summer mainly here in the Chemistry department, it had been a little too quiet for her tastes, "but I think my quiet time is going to be again rudely interrupted every five minutes."  
  
"Count on it," came Vince LaSalle's voice into the conversation as the black athlete observed what the two girls were looking at.  
  
Gus was making his way over to them, his arms filled with books that he had to keep shifting his weight to keep his balance. Seeing the green and brown camouflage pants, green shirt and plain brown jacket he wore as due to his military upbringing with the crew-cut blond hair still the same, Spinelli caught one of the many books in her hand before it landed in a puddle below.  
  
"Gee, thanks..Spinelli?"  
  
"Don't act so shocked to see me, Griswold, or your face might freeze that way."  
  
Vince had to admit that he had done a double take himself at seeing her looking so un-Spinelli like yet still Spinelli. The clothes were designer, he knew of them from his girlfriend Ashley Boulet, and her hair made her actually look her age or older than the rest of them. Everything complimented her that he was sure that Ashley B. couldn't have dressed Spinelli better.  
  
"What did you do.. I mean you look great." Gus complimented.  
  
"Thanks," Spinelli took it in stride, seeing Gretch's look of annoyance as the five foot eight red head had a crush on the inch taller Gus bringing out the man in the short boy that they had met years ago.  
  
"What a picture this would be if we were all free," Mikey's poetic view point interceded and Spinelli felt a grin spread her features at his khaki pants, green shirt with the peace sign in the middle in white and his hair combed self.  
  
"Speaking of the institution," Vince commented, "shouldn't our fearless leader be here?"  
  
Spinelli saw T.J.'s truck pull into the parking lot, music pounding out of the stereo system that she recognized as the music group Stained, someone she knew he didn't listen to, and when he got out nothing shocked the others more than the fact that Ashley A. was hanging on his arm like a leech. It didn't surprise Spinelli in any form, she had expected it. What surprised her was that he was dressed way too good in her mind's eye. A medium blue shirt that clung to his well-made upper body, with black jeans and letterman jacket on his body but although that was a surprise his trademark red cap was missing, something that had never for more than a couple hours ever happened. His hair was lighter than she remembered, most likely due to the California sunshine and his blue eyes were cold and indifferent.  
  
"I'd say that's him." Spinelli pointed out as they came closer and she saw the passing glance over her clothes that could only be considered as wonder quickly displaced back to the frigid aura he seemed to be packing.  
  
"Good morning, everyone," Ashley A. in traditional pink and light gray, "how interesting of you to dress as one with taste, Spinelli."  
  
Her friends literally tensed as if expecting the instant contact of Spinelli's fist with Ashley A.'s smug face to be disappointed when Spinelli only smirked at the other girl.  
  
"Isn't it though? I just went to bed one night and woke up feeling the need to give you a run for your money, Armbruster. Hope you don't mind."  
  
A half gasp, half cough at the comeback came out of Ashley A.'s mouth, which only broadened Spinelli's grin. A sideway glance at T.J. Spinelli saw that he wasn't expressing any emotion and it was starting to irritate her.  
  
"Maybe you should close your girlfriend's mouth, Teej, before you find it hard to kiss her with her mouth as wide as it is now if it freezes."  
  
Turning on her heel, Spinelli walked away with confidence only to get three feet away and hear his voice.  
  
"Nice to see you, too, Spin."  
  
Not wanting to think about replying to him, she continued walking towards the entrance of the school not in the mood to find another way to enter knowing if anyone dared to mess with her would find them in a fight they were not going to win. As she saw Irwin Lawson come to the side of the sidewalk, she froze him in place with a glare.  
  
Watching her enter the school, everyone turned to T.J. and Ashley A. as they were now on the sidewalk with the other five of the group. Randal Weems wrote down what happened as fast as he could, a calculating smile on his face.  
  
~  
  
Her boots sounded on the scuffed and scarred flooring of the school hallway, that when she got to her locker she had to calm herself down because her grip on it threatened to have the thing break in two. Counting backwards from ten, another trick from Toni that had never worked because she never before wanted it to, she calmed down and opened her locker, same as every year before and dumped the contents of her backpack in it, hanging her backpack on the hook located inside the locker along with her leather jacket. Pulling out her binder and some pens, she grabbed her schedule out of her back pocket and headed to her first class after loudly banging the metal locker door shut.  
  
"Well, well, if it isn't Spinugly," Lawson's voice rang out next to one of the set of lockers she just passed, "have a fight with Dweebweiler?"  
  
"Every year those insults get more and more funny, Lawson, really," Spinelli sarcastically replied, "you should think about retiring them before you get yourself into a whole lot of trouble that you won't be able to handle."  
  
"Gonna hurt me, Spinelli?"  
  
"Thinking about it. Though it would be a shame to send you all the way back to Junior Year again, cause wouldn't it be your third time then?"  
  
Some people passing by snickered at her comment, as he reddened in the face.  
  
"Lawson, don't you have some place to be?" Vince's voice of calm anger reason interfered.  
  
"Not that I'm scared of you, Spinelli," Lawson stated, "but I don't want to be late. LaSalle."  
  
Vince watched Lawson head down the filled corridor and watched Spinelli clench her fist and then release it.  
  
"Want to tell me what you were doing this morning with T.J.?"  
  
Spinelli touched her forehead, as she felt a headache coming on.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it," moving away from the wall she leaned against, his hand came out to catch her by the elbow.  
  
"Why weren't you floored like the rest of us at seeing Ashley A. with T.J.?"  
  
"Why weren't you? It was bound to happen. He is the Captain of the Football Team and she is the Head Cheerleader, it's a match made in heaven."  
  
Worry entered his eyes at her dismissal of it all.  
  
"Spinelli..."  
  
"Just leave it alone, Vince. I don't want to talk about it and if you are so concerned ask T.J. or Ashley A. for that matter. I'd sure your girlfriend's best friend would love to tell you why I wasn't floored. I gotta go."  
  
Jerking her arm out of his grip, she headed down the walk way and up to the second floor where her homeroom was this year.  
  
  
  
Gretchen and Mikey watched the whole intervention of Vince with Spinelli and the pained expression that momentarily crossed her face. Gus was putting his books in his locker that they stood by so he didn't notice.  
  
"What was that all about?" Mikey asked.  
  
"I think we should have a private talk with Spinelli after school."  
  
"I'm more worried about T.J." Gus announced to them, "he didn't like what she said this morning and he isn't acting like himself."  
  
"How did you see that," Gretchen wondered, "his face was expressionless."  
  
"Be a military kid and around officers and you get to read peoples faces."  
  
"Has he talked to you, Vince, about the divorce?"  
  
Vince shook his head after heading back over to them.  
  
"He hasn't called me. We're missing something."  
  
"Yeah, T.J. and Spinelli."  
  
~  
  
T.J. Detweiler couldn't explain what exactly he was feeling when he saw Spinelli looking like she did now. It was so un-like anything he could of expected to see her in, not to mention how much great it looked. Ashley A.'s eyes hadn't left Spinelli's clothes the entire time they were talking and he had wondered if she was thinking about who the designers were. He had always liked Spinelli's hair long but even he had to admit the hairstyle and added color fit the punkette perfectly.  
  
What he didn't want to think about was how much he had missed her. Even when they had their fights, like all friends had, they still managed to talk to one another about everything. Not being able to talk to her about the confusion his mind was putting him in a tailspin. Adding insult to injury by not speaking up first, he had to bring Ashley A. into the picture. Knowing how much Spin detested especially that Ashley he wondered if he did it for some odd payback. Her not telling him that she was leaving was worse to him than waking up the next morning after his parents announced their divorce to find his father putting the last of his stuff into the truck and driving off without a goodbye.  
  
The entire time in California he must have picked up the phone a dozen times to dial her number only to remember she wasn't there and he didn't have the number where she was. He hadn't asked the others for it, when Spin called and gave it to Gretchen. Hadn't wanted to admit he needed to talk to her. His mind had finally decided that he didn't need to talk to anyone about the divorce, the judgment for custody, or his feelings of it. They wouldn't understand, none of them could really know what it was like. With that decision T.J. knew he needed to change outside as well, the hat the cursed thing that was like his own arm it was so attached had to be the first to go. It resembled how complete he was when he felt anything but. The trusty cap had been with him for as long as he could remember, letting go of it had been the hardest part. Finally he handed it over to his Uncle to put in the trash and never once looked back.  
  
Chaos reigned in part of his mind. The part where stability was once the strong hold and now was nothing. Not his parents and not Spinelli. How weird to think how much she affected his life and then without so much as a bye or leave she left. When he was at his lowest point in his life and there had only been Ashley A. Kissing her was one of the things he regretted. Getting caught up in all the turmoil his emotions were in he let himself only feel. Deep inside he could have sworn he saw Spinelli there but when he opened his eyes he knew it was all in his head, thankfully. That was one thing he never wanted her to see him do. Now he wasn't sure if he even cared.  
  
Something had to be done about that. Caring. It hurt. It didn't help in any way shape or form to keep his family together. His sister Becky was in her last year of college for law, his mom had been given the house and his father moved to Oregon to work. Nothing was right about it and caring didn't bring them all back together.  
  
Sitting across the room from Spinelli, watching cautiously as she wrote down on paper whatever assignment they had just been given, he watched. Having this class with her all year long might be torment enough to get her out of his head. Slipping by her desk before class started he knew this one was the only one they had together while he had three with Ashley A. Somewhere inside of him a young T.J. was screaming at him for doing this, separated himself from the people he cared for.  
  
~  
  
The main outside period for the school was fifth. It let the football team practice, cheerleaders preformed rehearsed cheers, have combined classes go head to head on whatever sport was in season. Everyone's energy was tested to the limit before heading to the showers to cool off. That was when they were introduced to a new competitor for the football star position.  
  
Strawberry-blond hair that curled at the edges with hazel-gold eyes, standing at six foot two inches and with a body that was making the female population sigh in appreciation. Standing on the sidelines of the football field, he was used to the female attention he was getting. One female wasn't paying him the least amount of attention and that was what sparked his interest. Alone high in the bleachers with a large pad of paper in her lap, she was scribbling away on it, watching intrigued at her behavior when so many people were involved in other activities yet she sat up on the bleaches out of reach with her notepad. A voice intruded on his thought pattern, as another girl called up to the one on the bleachers.  
  
This girl wasn't worth a second glance, he decided, too thin for his tastes although she was the perfect height. Her clothes spoke of prudish mannerisms that wouldn't do him any good. The red head headed up to the brunette, calling her name again that he was sure he was mishearing the name being called although the girl did look up and he lost himself in the flawless features of the brunette.  
  
"Spinelli! What are you doing up here, you are know your going to be late to Chemistry, right?" Gretchen called up to Spinelli who was snapping her book shut and standing.  
  
"Chill, Gretch, I'm coming," stepping on the bleacher seats as she came down, "you'd think that Chemistry was important or something." Spinelli mumbled under her breath and as she jumped to the ground the last step she saw a guy observing her with avid intent.  
  
"Oh, I wouldn't say Chemistry isn't without its perks." His voice loaded with innuendo that Spinelli wasn't sure what to attack first, his staring at her or his comment.  
  
Unfortunately she got to do neither since he stepped from his position of standing against the railing of the bleachers to where the Coach was calling him, with a very angered T.J. at seeing the guy picking up on Spinelli. Why he felt anger escaped him but old habits died hard when it came to the petite punkette.  
  
"Campbell, I'd like you to meet our Quarterback, T.J. Detweiler."  
  
Ethan took in Detweiler, whom he had heard about from his previous school and found nothing lacking in the guy before him.  
  
"Campbell," the Coach's voice level raised so the rest of the team could hear, "transferred from West Prep and since he was unable to try out for the team and he comes highly recommended to the team."  
  
"Wasn't he the Quarterback?" came a raised question from Thompson.  
  
"Since sophomore year," Ethan replied smugly.  
  
"What do we need with another Quarterback?" Garcia yelled.  
  
"We only need one but it would be a good idea to have an extra one for back up since we have a spot open due to Young's transfer out of state."  
  
As Coach went into detail with the rest of the team, Ethan stood next to the semi-uniformed T.J.  
  
"And we all know whose going to be the back up, don't we, Detweiler?" Ethan confidently said and walked closer to the group.  
  
The thought of could this day get any worse, crossed T.J.'s mind.  
  
  
  
Mikey caught up to Spinelli outside her Chemistry class, seeing the exhaustion evident on her face. Out of the entire group he was closest to Spinelli and then Gus. Although he knew that she could take care of herself physically it was mentally that worried him the most. Now with the school day ending she was clearly worn out whether it was still from jet lag or the entire day itself he said it was an equal match.  
  
"Worn out, Spinelli?" Mikey asked.  
  
"Clearly I need some of that junk those Ashley girls wear if you can tell just by looking at me."  
  
"Only because I know you. Gretch wants to know if you are up for a group talk."  
  
Spinelli wasn't up for anything right at the moment. Her mind was overloaded with information and excess emotional baggage.  
  
"Can it wait until tomorrow when I get some sleep?"  
  
"I'll try to keep the wolves at bay." Mikey assured.  
  
"One more thing and I swear I'm going to pull my hair out."  
  
"Miss Spinelli! Mr. Blumberg!" the adult voice echoed through the crowded halls to find its owner was Mr. Ryan, their mutual drama teacher.  
  
A groan of impatience made Spinelli wanted to stomp her feet at not getting her way to just go home and collapse on her bed, made Mikey grin.  
  
"Yes, Mr. Ryan?" Spinelli's impatience barely concealed.  
  
"I know you both probably want to go straight home," he started, he used his hands for emphasis when he talked stating the obvious, "but I have a request that I want you both to consider, especially you Spinelli."  
  
Pausing, both Mikey and Spinelli with continue expressions on their faces, he added, "We are trying to start a band, not particularly school related but one that the student body can relate to with music sung by students and done by students. We don't know of any band already started by students and what we want to do is get one that can be used for the school dances. Singing songs personally written and others that are popular on the radio stations."  
  
"In other words you want to have a band that you can control and use because the school is too cheap to want to pay a D.J. right?" Spinelli commented, saying exactly what she was thinking.  
  
"Basically, yeah."  
  
"Sorry not interested."  
  
Mikey didn't move as Spinelli pulled on her jacket with a Come-On look.  
  
"You aren't seriously thinking of doing it, are you? Mikey, your voice is too good to be made to be some puppet for the school."  
  
Mr. Ryan was aware of how most students saw school so Spinelli's opinions weren't new to him but he had heard Mikey sing and over heard Spinelli when she was helping Mikey practice last year for a chorus concert. They both were good, Mikey especially so.  
  
"We'll think on it." Mikey finally said, as Spinelli stared at him like he had grown two heads.  
  
"Please do, it would be a shame to lose both your talents."  
  
Walking towards the main office, Mr. Ryan disappeared inside.  
  
"What the hell was that?"  
  
"I don't expect you to understand, Spinelli but it's been a dream of mine to sing professionally. I want to do this."  
  
"Be a pulled strings wooden doll for the School Administration?"  
  
"No, to sing publicly and have people appreciate it."  
  
"People do appreciate your voice, Mikey. You are one of the most accomplished singers I've ever heard even without professional training."  
  
"Just let's talk about it tomorrow," Mikey told her as she huffed and walked out into the cold air of the school parking lot.  
  
"Want a lift?" Spinelli offered, "Gretchen is staying to work on her newest project that she hasn't told me about and is having her parents pick her up later."  
  
"Sure."  
  
Getting in her Jeep, she turned on the engine and found herself backing her car almost into the too fast driving Mercedes with who else but Ashley Q. behind the wheel with Ashley A. in the passenger seat.  
  
"Watch where you're going, Spinelli!" Ashley A. yelled out the window.  
  
"Wouldn't want to wreck Daddy's newest investment in his little girl's future, would I?" Spinelli angrily shouted back.  
  
Ashley Q. only shook her head; knowing she was the one driving too fast and shooting an apology glance at Spinelli, who was startled by it.  
  
"Sorry, Spinelli."  
  
"Why are you apologizing to her." the car took off before Spinelli could hear anymore of Ashley A.'s complaints.  
  
Mikey saw the expression of confusion on Spinelli's face from Ashley Quindlen's apology. He knew that the auburn haired Ashley was really very nice behind her mask of being an Ashley. All of them were except maybe Ashley A.  
  
"This day gets weirder and weirder."  
  
Driving home after dropping Mikey off at his house, promising to talk to him first thing tomorrow morning she pulled into the driveway and cut the engine. Getting out she saw T.J. across the way and when their eyes for an instant before he turned on his sneaker clad feet and headed into the house.  
  
"We never did get to talk today, did we?" She said out loud to no one.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Deeper into the depths of High School Recess Style soon...  
  
~Scandal~  
  
November 16, 2001 


	3. Newspapers and Football

A Rose With Thorns  
  
Chapter Three: Newspapers and Football  
  
Written by: Scandalous Behavior  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Morning came before Spinelli realized it. Hoping her parents didn't take it personally since when she got into the house the night before and heading straight up the seemingly long staircase collapsed onto her bed. Didn't come down to dinner and woke up this morning with a blanket tossed on her most likely from her mother. Her head pounded like an alternating sledgehammer and drill so first thing first was to find the biggest dose of aspirin she could find.  
  
Coming down the stairs, a hand casually holding the banister as she did for safety reasons of sleep walking and loss of balance, Spinelli entered the kitchen to find her mom smiling but her dad was no where to be found.  
  
"How's my Pookie this morning?"  
  
The cheerful ringing of her mother's voice rang out in Spin's head that she couldn't help the wince.  
  
"Oh," Flo cooed, "are you alright this morning?"  
  
"Fine just had a long day yesterday."  
  
Nodding in remembrance of her last year first day of high school.  
  
"Toni called last night but we thought it best not to wake you."  
  
Spinelli paused her hand, which was carrying a blueberry muffin to her mouth.  
  
"What did you tell her?"  
  
"That it would be better if she tried calling today. She said something about letting you know about a package she mailed for you that should arrive any day and that she wished you had a good day at school."  
  
"Can't hurt to wish." Spinelli muttered.  
  
Ignoring her mother's questioning look, she grabbed her backpack cursing that she hadn't gotten the assignment done for Mr. Quincy, her History teacher, that he assigned she called out a goodbye and ran out to her car. Driving to school with the single thought that she was going to be late as it was five minutes to the bell rang and pulled into the parking lot at the exact time the last bell rang. Scrambling out of her Jeep she ran into the school and had to come to an abrupt stop as Menlo, the school hall monitor and office helper stood right in her way. One thing hadn't changed about him he was still dressed with not a wrinkle in his clothes and files in his thin arms. Adjusting his glasses as he stared at her, she rolled her eyes at him knowing by this time her change in appearance had to be all over school.  
  
"You're late." Menlo noted, stating the obvious.  
  
"And here I thought I had seconds to spare."  
  
"Funny," Menlo retorted, "come with me to the office."  
  
"God, it's the second day of school, Menlo can't you find some else to harass this early in the morning?"  
  
"Afraid you are the only one late this morning."  
  
Thinking back to her promise to Toni that controlling her anger was a number one key in the slightly altered Spinelli, she stretched out her fingers that she hadn't realized were fisted. Opening the door to the front desk, he indicated with his hand for her to enter and as she did, narrowing her eyes at him as she passed him, she flopped down on the wooden bench provided for students that waited instructions after being caught doing something wrong.  
  
Letting an impatient sigh out, a small smile formed on the weasel face of Randal Weems coming out of the Principal's office. His slight hunched back and sneaky ways were the ears and eyes of Washington High, literally. He was now the editor of the school paper, Washington Gazette, hard to believe as that was. Not bothering to hide her irritation of his presence, Spinelli scowled at him.  
  
"Only the second day of school and already in trouble being on time," Randal gloated, "you wouldn't see me doing such a thing."  
  
"It would ruin your chances at Spyville University would it?"  
  
The secretary hid a smile at the well-known brunette's comment. Though Spinelli was a troublemaker and smart-ass there was not one person adult wise that worked in the office that didn't like her. The girl told it as it was and every time that she came up against 'The Rat' as the other office ladies had come to call Randal, they always rooted for Spinelli. He might have the Principal, Vice-Principal, and some of the teachers fooled at this school but he didn't fool them and especially not the spunky brunette that they all knew he had a crush on. Another will-never-happen scenario in his life as the girl would not give him the time of day if he were the most sought after guy on campus.  
  
"A bit testy after the public display of Detweiler ditching you for Ashley A.?" Randal inquired, knowing all about it since he was on the front lawn when it happened.  
  
"Keep it up, Weems, and they'll have something better to put on my school record when I spray your blood against the wall."  
  
Menlo lowered his eyes back from the display of the two onto the filling out late slip for Spinelli.  
  
"Spinelli," Ms. Edwards, the secretary, cut in, "please reframe from threatening Randal with bodily harm before the Principal hears you."  
  
Shrugging at the woman, Spinelli glanced at Principal Prickly's office door. That man wouldn't be surprised to hear anything she said, he'd been her Principal in elementary school and knew her as well as he did Randal. Randal smirked at her being reprimanded by the secretary before leaving, knowing that the piece of information would be great to add into this Friday's addition of the Gazette. Menlo only shook his head at Randal and Spinelli's interaction, used to the threats. No one at the school truly liked Randal. Even he, Menlo, had friends when Randal only had his obsessions with spying on people and the school paper. It was sad but in that normal because in all honestly that was about as close to someone really being a friend that the loner was ever going to get if he kept up as he was now.  
  
"I will let you off with a warning, Spinelli," Ms. Edwards reported handing the slip Menlo had filled out to the standing girl, "just try to keep on time for at least another week before I need to start handing detention out."  
  
"Okay," Spinelli took the paper and slipped it into her jean jacket pocket, "I can go now?"  
  
"Make sure that Mr. Ryan sees that so he doesn't send someone to get one for you."  
  
Spinelli pushed the door opened and felt hands come out to stop her from running into the guy in front of her.  
  
"Gotta watch where you're going or else someone might think that is how you meet people." a amused voice commented and Spinelli found herself looking into the hazel-gold eyes of the guy from the bleachers the day before.  
  
"You can let go now."  
  
Dropping his hands to his sides, he took in the feisty brunette, as the corridor was empty minus the two of them.  
  
"I'm Ethan Campbell."  
  
"How nice for you," Spinelli went around him and continued down the hall.  
  
"See you around, Spinelli." Ethan called before grinning and heading into the main office.  
  
Entering the auditorium where her drama class was already going over manuscripts for short skits that they would have to perform by next week, Spinelli dropped her bag in one of the wooden folding out aisle chairs and headed onto the stage. Forking over the late slip, she handed it to Mr. Ryan, who clipped it to his ever-handy clipboard and nodded to her.  
  
"We paired you with Mikey for next week's skit, Spinelli," Mr. Ryan informed, "I trust that isn't going to be a problem?"  
  
"No."  
  
Coming off the side stairs from the stage, she picked up her bag and sat in the spot it had previously occupied, right next to an inquiring Mikey.  
  
"Detention?"  
  
"Nah, Ms. Edwards let me off with a warning. Ran into Menlo, battled with Randal, and got hit on by that new football guy."  
  
A cry came from across the aisle, raising eyebrows from Spinelli and Mikey. Seeing Ashley Tomassian, the last of the four Ashleys, with her mouth open and shocked staring at Spinelli with one of the fellow cheerleaders, Courtney Johnson.  
  
"Ethan Campbell talked to you?" Ashley T. screeched.  
  
"Yeah, so?"  
  
"Don't you know that he is the new Quarterback of Washington?"  
  
That did surprise not only Spinelli but Mikey as well.  
  
"Isn't T.J. Quarterback?"  
  
"He is but Coach decided to have them both be Quarterback. You know for, like, a back up."  
  
Spinelli's eyes met Mikey's.  
  
"But who's the back up?"  
  
~  
  
After class Spinelli headed to the Math Division of the school, to where T.J. had his next class of Calculus. Something you'd never catch me taking, Spinelli thought. Standing against the open door leaning against the wall, she waited for him to show up so she could pull him aside for a minute. It was her free period so she didn't have to be anywhere.  
  
"Helping hold the door in place, Spinelli?" Vince joked, coming to see what she was up to.  
  
"Looked like it was having trouble. Aren't you in Language this period?"  
  
"Wanted to see what you were doing standing there."  
  
"Waiting for T.J."  
  
"Did you two talk yesterday?"  
  
"Didn't get a chance," Spinelli admitted, "then I heard that he and Campbell are sharing the Quarterback spot and thought I'd come see about it."  
  
"Sharing Quarterback spot?"  
  
"Seems Coach likes Campbell and wants him and Teej to share the spot. To have a spare."  
  
"You can't do that." Vince protested.  
  
"I know you can't, you know he can't, but Coach seems to think he can."  
  
"Again I see you near a door," Ethan's voice came, "always lurk in doorways?"  
  
"What do you want?"  
  
"This is my class, as if you didn't know."  
  
"Why would I care what class you have, Campbell?"  
  
"Just consider the fact that as Quarterback how your association with me could help your reputation."  
  
"Are you always this delusional? You aren't Quarterback and I wouldn't hang around you if everything you touched turned to gold. Why don't you go bother someone who cares about your Golden Boy rep?"  
  
Vince smirked at the automatic defense response that Spinelli gave to guys that thought she didn't like who she was and that she would become another mindless simpering girl after a guy's reputation. The fact that she knew exactly who she was and what she wanted was one of the reasons she stayed Spinelli, even after her makeover. No guy was ever going to lay one over on her and no guy could, Vince thought, minus a certain guy she was on the outs with right now.  
  
Ethan only heard what he wanted to hear. She was a spitfire that was sure. Knowing that he would have to change his tactics when it came to the petite beauty, he winked at her as he entered the class.  
  
"Can that guy be any more dense? I swear," Spinelli gestured to her clothing, "this clothing change is causing me nothing but trouble."  
  
"It isn't the clothes, Spinelli, it's you."  
  
Too angered at Ethan's remarks to answer she caught sight of T.J. and pushed herself away from the door, as Vince waved goodbye. Feeling awkward about talking to T.J. after what she snapped at him yesterday, Spinelli stepped away and caught his blue eyes with her own.  
  
"Can I talk to you for a minute?"  
  
T.J. had the expression that he was too busy to want to deal with her but followed her by some unoccupied lockers never the less.  
  
"What do you want, Spin?" His voice was cold.  
  
"Look, I'm sorry about the way I acted yesterday. Seeing you with Ashley A. aga..." Spinelli stopped herself before she said too much about that, "we all were a little off about it. I didn't need to attack you the way I did."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Puzzled that he was being so distant with her when really she should be the one mad at him, at least in her mind she had a reason to be mad at him, she continued.  
  
"I heard about Campbell being placed as Quarterback with you and thought I'd ask you about it."  
  
"What do you want to know? That Coach thinks that I need to have a backup or that Campbell is just as good as me and is basically trying to take over the team? Was that what you wanted to hear?" The anger and bitterness in his tone threw her.  
  
"Teej, I was just wondering..."  
  
"Well, don't. I don't want your pity or understanding about this. Just leave it alone, Spinelli."  
  
Turning his back on her, he walked a couple steps when he heard her holler at him.  
  
"The guys said you had something you needed to tell me."  
  
Glancing over his shoulder, his eyes took in the hidden pained expression she was trying hard to keep from having over people notice but after almost fourteen years of knowing her he saw it and inside it hurt to see her like that.  
  
"It's nothing."  
  
Spinelli stood in the hallway as the final bell rang, feeling like a complete idiot. What was wrong with him? T.J. had never been that way with her, had never been that cold to anyone that she knew of. Why now and why did it seem directly at her? What reason did he have to be so angry and bitter towards her?  
  
~  
  
The Friday that followed was the day that certain things came to light. Spinelli had tried two more times to talk to T.J. about what was going on but he only gave her one words answers or blew her off entirely. Frustrated with dealing with him, she took her energy out on her punching bag hooked to a beam in the garage at home or into her drawings.  
  
Gus was in the JROTC at the high school and had flag detail that month, so he was always at school a while before even most teachers so it made it the perfect spot to come talk in the morning when she actually got up when she was supposed to. Her jet lag finally going away by mid-Wednesday morning. Gretchen had decided it was time for them all to have a talk without their fearless leader being present. On Friday, Spinelli climbed out of bed at six and groaned at Gretchen's wanting them at the school at six forty-five on the dot. Dressing in a mid-drift red sweater with interwoven gold threads, red snakeskin pants with matching shoes and jacket, Spinelli twisted her hair up and clipped it in place. Getting into her Jeep, which was freezing, she quickly turned on the defroster and then the air conditioner as she went to pick up Mikey.  
  
They hadn't spoken alot about the singing deal but that changed the minute he got into the Jeep that morning. A smile plastered on his features, he was making her wonder if he was taking some sort of happy-pill in the morning cause he had been like this for two days.  
  
"Enough, what in the world are you so happy about lately and don't tell me it's because they fired the lunch lady and replaced her with someone who actually cooks good food cause we got over that on Tuesday."  
  
"I talked to Mr. Ryan."  
  
Simple enough but it spoke volumes.  
  
"Just what did you talk to Mr. Ryan about, Mikey?"  
  
"That we will be doing the band."  
  
Her foot slammed on the brakes and brought the Jeep to a complete stop on the road to the school.  
  
"You did what?!"  
  
"Spinelli, it is a really great idea. The music, the lyrics, the flowing of our essences over the audience holding them captive until the last cord."  
  
"I don't care about our essences I want to know why you volunteered me for this?"  
  
"Cause I knew you wouldn't have wanted to do it."  
  
"And didn't that thought give you some clue as to what my reaction of you just putting me in this predicament? Mikey, are you nuts? I can't sing in front of people."  
  
Noticing that cars were coming up behind her, she pressed her foot on the gas and headed down the road again.  
  
"I've heard you and Mr. Ryan obviously has heard you. You have talent to sing, Spinelli."  
  
"No, you have talent at singing. I sound like a choked up frog when I sing."  
  
"You do not."  
  
"Helping you that one time was a fluke. I can't do it in public, I can barely do it with my family in the same room. What the hell made you think that I would want to do this when he suggested it and I flatly refused, the first time?"  
  
"Spinelli, you haven't even given yourself a chance to do this. I already found the people to do the instruments; guitar, drums, keyboard all we need is you and we're all set."  
  
"Why me?" Spinelli pulled off the main road to the school private entrance and down to the parking lot.  
  
"I will be singing too but with you to soften the sound and do duets with the band will really be something to see."  
  
Cutting the engine, Spinelli turned to him.  
  
"If, and I mean if, I agree to this, how much time of my life is this going to take up?"  
  
"Practices are twice a week and every other Sunday afternoon. We'll do the school dances and some other functions but nothing too big."  
  
"Only humiliating enough."  
  
Opening her driver's door, she grabbed her backpack and locked the doors behind them. Mikey stood next to her as they walked.  
  
"What are you so worried about?"  
  
"I don't know, Mikey," Spinelli started, "I've never been a real joiner of things. Mrs. Wilcox convinced me to try out for swimming next week, then with this and my drawing..."  
  
"You didn't tell me you were taking art."  
  
"For self-study. In Rome I kinda got inspired or something."  
  
Mikey smiled at her reluctance to admit those pieces of information but he knew that she was good at them. Her simple doodles in class on papers were better than most half an hour sketches that he saw and watching her in water was poetry in motion. The school main entrance door was cracked with Gus standing right to the inside of the door and locked it after them.  
  
"You guys are the last ones," Gus told them, making Spinelli glance at her wristwatch.  
  
"It's only six forty-two, we're early."  
  
Gus grinned, "Try telling Gretch that."  
  
Rolling her eyes, Spinelli and Mikey followed Gus to the JROTC room that was the only other door in the school unlocked. Sitting on the desk of the instructor, making Gus shake his head at Spinelli, she saw Gretch and Vince were already in a heated discussion that their entrance went unnoticed.  
  
".....We can't just go and tell her without him knowing about it. He said he will tell her so we've got to leave it up to him." Vince challenged.  
  
"He hasn't spoken to Spinelli in any other than a hostile manner since he came back from Los Angeles and it doesn't look like he wants to tell her. She doesn't know why he's mad at her and she has the right to know." Gretchen objected.  
  
"Why do I get the feeling that you guys are holding back some big dark secret?" Spinelli interrupted with.  
  
Gretchen and Vince both looked over to the three people that entered without them realizing it.  
  
"Uh, morning, Spinelli."  
  
"Good morning, Spinelli, Mikey."  
  
"Are you two gonna answer my question?"  
  
"Don't," Vince warned Gretchen.  
  
"Okay, if neither of you want to get someone upset at you both for telling me let's see if I can guess," Spinelli offered, seeing Mikey sigh and Gus cringe, "it has to do with what T.J. was supposed to tell me, right?"  
  
Gretchen nodded sadly.  
  
"Now, what could he need to tell me? It happened when I left, I know, and none of you want to tell me since Teej made you promise to let him tell me but as that hasn't happened and he seems to be holding some grudge against me because of it I kinda need to know."  
  
"His parents got divorced," Gus blurted.  
  
Well, that wasn't what she ever expected to hear.  
  
"They got divorced?"  
  
"He told us the day you left that his parents were getting a divorce, that's why they sent him to L.A." Mikey went on knowing now that seeing T.J. so angry at Spinelli was getting to them all.  
  
"The day I left," a flash back of the night before and it made sense that she could kick herself for being so blind.  
  
"His father left that morning and moved to Oregon." Vince added.  
  
"And all this time I didn't know, I mean I didn't see Mr. Detweiler's car and it never clicked that they were divorced. God, T.J."  
  
"So now you know."  
  
"He never let on that was what it was and I've been mad at him for being mad at me," Spinelli whispered.  
  
"T.J.'s not exactly going to be pleased with us for telling you."  
  
"Let me deal with T.J."  
  
Not realizing that they were so into the conversation that they ignored the opening doors of the school and footsteps sounding off the five of them left the room.  
  
~  
  
During Spanish, Spinelli watched out the window of the classroom thinking and didn't hear her teacher call her name twice. Finally a girl sitting behind her poked her shoulder.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Looks like Senorita Spinelli has finally decided to join the rest of us," Senora Martinez pointed out and Spinelli forced herself to pay attention the rest of class.  
  
Wondering how she could have missed T.J.'s withdrawal from his parents break up, she wasn't paying attention to the stares she was getting as she walked the halls until a snide comment interfered with her thoughts.  
  
"Who ever said that she was the right girl for him anyway? T.J. is way too nice for Spinelli, did I tell you how many times he's had to bale her out of trouble..."  
  
Spinelli didn't know the voice but the words hit her hard. Sensing she was missing something she grabbed a paper off the stand to the side of the table next to the cafeteria and read the words:  
  
Break Up Of Power Couple on Quad Monday  
  
After fourteen years of friendship and emotions that pointed a little towards those of romantic than just friends it seems that T.J. Detweiler and Ashley Spinelli have decided that splitting ways is the way to go with the surprise appearance of Ashley Armbruster on T.J.'s arm Monday morning. The reaction of Spinelli was not pretty and those who were witnesses described her response as hostile towards the new couple. Some say it has not affected T.J. at all, his football skills at an all time high, and although reports aren't too clear it seems that Spinelli was not able to sleep that night and arrived late to school the next morning from the incident.  
  
Not bothering to read the rest of the lengthy article Spinelli saw red. Damn Randal and his butting into things that are none of his business. Throwing the paper to the ground, people quickly moved out of her way as she headed directly to the Editorial room. Her eyes took in the computers and layout table then focused on Randal Weems, his back to her and when a collective gasp came from the geeks that worked on the paper, he turned around to find himself trapped to the wall with Spinelli's arm across his throat as she pinned him in place.  
  
"What gave you the right to print that, Randal?" Spinelli hissed.  
  
"I have the right of the school to print any information I want and it's not like it wasn't lies, Spinelli. You and Detweiler are no longer friends."  
  
Releasing her grip on him, as it wouldn't do to get her suspended by killing the rodent, she kept him still pinned to the spot with her eyes.  
  
"Listen up, Weems, cause I'm only going to say this once. My life is my business and not open to public display on your gossip column paper. You print anything else on that paper with my name on it and I will personally force-feed every last paper down your slimy throat. I want a retraction done," Spinelli came closer menacingly, "now. Whoever gave you permission to print that wasn't me and I want it gone."  
  
Turning on her heeled boot she stocked out of the room and came around the back of the school building, slumping down the brick wall and closing her eyes to block out the world.  
  
~  
  
T.J. was in fourth period when copies were handed out to the students, as soon as his eyes read the main cover story he couldn't believe Randal's odyssey to print that garbage. What happened on the front lawn Monday was his and Spinelli's business, no one else's. Clutching the paper in his hand, he heard the bell ring for class to get out and went the three doors down to the Editorial room to find Spinelli already in there making sure Randal knew just where she stood on the issue. His face broke into a small smile at her very blunt and direct threat that Randal knew better than to contradict with. Moving away so that when the steamed Spinelli came out she walked right by without seeing him, entering the room a red-faced Randal was sitting in his seat taking in breaths.  
  
Some of the other reporters watched his movement with avid interest to see if he would do something to Randal as Spinelli had.  
  
"I think what Spin said was clear enough, right, Randal?" T.J.'s voice was pleasant but firm.  
  
"Sure, anything you say, T.J."  
  
"Good, let's not have this discussion again cause I'd hate for Spin to get suspended by having you choke to death on another article."  
  
The exit of Detweiler created the group to form around their editor. Randal relaxed back in his chair.  
  
"Didn't look like they weren't friends to me, Randal," one of his reporters said.  
  
"No, it didn't, did it." Randal replied, knowing that his plan had worked.  
  
~  
  
Gretchen caught up to Spinelli during last period, as she was teacher's aid to Dr. Zuckerman and sat next to Spinelli as she finished her formula. Seeing the distant expression on her friend's face, Gretch spoke softly.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Do I look okay?" Spinelli snapped, then calmed, "Sorry, Gretch. Been one of those days."  
  
"Randal did not have cause to make that public. You and T.J. didn't deserve that."  
  
"Thanks, Gretchen but even though he printed the retraction it still didn't stop people from reading it. Am I really that big of a nuisance in T.J.'s life? Getting him to get me out of trouble I put myself in and expecting him just to come up with some plan to make it all go away. What a friend I've been."  
  
Wondering where this was coming from, Gretchen opened her mouth to ask but was called to the front by the teacher.  
  
After school, Mr. Ryan was given the plans that Mikey had come up with for rehearsals while Spinelli sat in the back of the auditorium, arms crossed. Mr. Ryan spared her a look to see her withdrawn appearance and saw Mikey only shake his head.  
  
"Don't worry about Spinelli, she'll be okay, Mr. Ryan."  
  
Nodding that Mikey knew the girl better than he did, Mikey went up the aisle and Spinelli followed him out of the auditorium.  
  
"Going to the game tonight?"  
  
"First game is tonight?"  
  
"Yes, if you want I'll tell Vince so we can all go in his Explorer."  
  
"Why not?" Spinelli shrugged.  
  
At home, she tossed her jacket on the coat hanger since she was going out later and sat in the livingroom, flipping on the television. Letting the background noise it provided echo in her head, she leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes only to open them two minutes later at the ringing of the phone. Reaching for the cordless in its cradle on the coffee table, she hit the send button and put it to her ear.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Don't we sound chipper?" Toni's amused voice spoke into Spinelli's ear.  
  
"Hey, Toni. Thought you said you were going to call on Tuesday?"  
  
"Got caught up in a shoot, sorry I didn't call back. Has my package arrived yet?"  
  
"Package?"  
  
"The one that your mom was supposed to tell you about?"  
  
"Oh, that package, I don't know let me go look," Spinelli went around the couch to the hallway and saw a large package sitting under the table where they always put their mail, her name clearly on it and headed back into the living room, "yeah, its here."  
  
"Well, open it I want to know what you think."  
  
Tearing the cardboard of the Priority Mail packaging, she pulled out a small album and a square box.  
  
"Do you have them?"  
  
"Yeah," Spinelli opened the album to find photos of herself when she had modeled for Lorenzo.  
  
"Aren't the photos great? He did a wonderful job on your shoot, Spinelli, so good that we did something you might be a little upset about."  
  
"How much is a little, Toni?"  
  
"Oh, about maybe not wanting to speak to me for a couple weeks."  
  
Spinelli didn't know if she could handle another situation in her life but closed her eyes and said, "What is it?"  
  
"It was Rafe's idea," hearing his protest in the background, Spinelli smiled, "we took some of the better shots of you and let my agent look at them. He said that you were very talented and anytime you want he would gladly hook you up with a agency and we kinda gave him permission to add them to one of our Italian fashion magazines as a future faces spread."  
  
"My pictures are in a magazine in Italy?"  
  
"Well, on the cover too but," Toni continued as Spinelli groaned, "it's tasteful and suits you. The magazine is due out later this month and I'll send you a copy. Now open the box."  
  
"Toni..."  
  
"Do it, Spinelli."  
  
Carefully raising the lid of the second box, not knowing if it was going to just come out and bit her as so many things had this week, she placed the lid beside her on the blue plush couch and unfolded the tissue paper to reveal the dress that she wore when the pictures were taken. A dark scarlet satin creation that felt like a dream and if memory served was over a thousand dollars.  
  
"Why am I looking at the most expensive dress in the world?"  
  
"It is not. Some dresses I model are worth a hundred thousand and don't even think of sending it back to me because I'll just send it right back until the mail decides its had enough of playing hot potato and forces you to accept it."  
  
"I can't accept this, Toni, it's too much."  
  
"It's just enough, I think. Besides its not from me it's from Lorenzo. Francesca asked to wear and rather than fight with her about it he decided to make me ship it to you. Told me that it was yours as only a dress can call to who it is truly destined to be worn by and since its been screaming your name we thought we'd better send it to you."  
  
"Are you on drugs? Dresses do not scream out to people."  
  
"If you are going to model one day you better get used to dresses doing that. So how was your day?"  
  
"You are going to go from giving me two heart attacks to asking about my day?"  
  
"That's what big sisters are for. So tell me."  
  
Spinelli went on about what happened since the first day of school, letting all of it just pour out and Toni listened, knowing that Spinelli needed to get this off her chest.  
  
"Now I don't know what is going on between us and I can't tell him what I saw without looking like I was spying on him. God, you don't know how confused I am."  
  
"Spinelli, listen, are you in love with T.J.?"  
  
"Am I what?"  
  
"Don't play with me, Spinelli, you either love the boy or you don't. A simple question. You wouldn't care so much about him if you didn't at least have some feelings for him. He is your best friend when it comes right down to it, the person you should be telling all of this to without a second thought. The fact of the matter is that you are not dealing with this because you don't have someone understanding what it is you are going through. His family is broken up, you feel guilty for not being there for him and now with this Ashley girl getting in the way, the newspaper article and a thousand little things going on in your life you need that stability. You need him."  
  
"I don't need him..."  
  
"Yeah, you do. Protest too much, Spinelli and I'm going to hang up on you."  
  
"Fine. So what am I supposed to do? I don't want to let him know I know which will just get him mad at the others for telling me but I can't just stand by and watch."  
  
"Confront him about it. Find out what's going on in that head of his. Did it ever occur to you he might need you just as much as you need him?"  
  
The honking of the horn coming from outside registered that Vince was here to get her.  
  
"I've got to go, Toni," glancing at her watch amazed that they had been on the phone for three hours, "football game."  
  
"Here I thought you were just trying to get rid of me."  
  
"Tell Rafe hi for me."  
  
"I will and Spinelli?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Just think about what I said."  
  
"I will. Bye, Toni."  
  
Pushing the END button, she set the phone back in the cradle and put the lid back on the dress, hiding the album inside and pushing it under the couch. The last thing she needed was her parents finding them. Taking the trash she put it in the garbage, wrote a quick note on the board where she was going tossed on her jacket and headed to the passenger side of Vince's Explorer. Getting in beside him as Mikey, Gus and Gretchen were in back.  
  
"What took you?" Vince questioned.  
  
"My sister."  
  
"Are you ready to be a fanatic fan of our school team?"  
  
Spinelli 'woowhoed' sarcastically making them all laugh.  
  
~  
  
The bleachers were packed with people that because Vince was so well known as a jock himself, they managed to get seats at top with some of his basketball buddies. The field was filled with players, sidelines with cheerleaders and mascots, venders at ends of the bleachers and the commentary stand was on the home side in the center top of the bleachers.  
  
Trying to make out numbers, Gretchen handed Spinelli binoculars and shrugged. It was the clearest way to see since they didn't have screens showing the details like professional fields and Spinelli scanned the field for number twenty-eight, Detweiler. Finding him she saw him in a debate with number four, Campbell near the sidelines. Ashley A was leading the cheerleaders in yet another annoying spelling contest cheer and Spinelli tossed the binoculars at Gus, who caught them.  
  
"Gonna go down and see about some drinks."  
  
"I'll come with you," Mikey offered and the two descended. Getting to the railing that was ten feet above the field and cheerleaders, Spinelli searched out for T.J. with her eyes.  
  
"What are you doing here, Spinelli?" the snobby Ashley A. asked.  
  
Catching the sweater and skirt of the cheerleading uniform Spinelli had to keep from laughing at the outfit that she was certain was freezing Ashley A to the Ice Princess she was.  
  
"Watching the game."  
  
"Just keep your paws and eyes off my boyfriend."  
  
"Didn't know you had one, Ashley A.," Spinelli lied, "what's his name again?"  
  
Fuming, Ashley A warned the brunette, "You know just who I'm talking about, Spinelli. Keep your eyes off T.J."  
  
"Is that who your boyfriend is?" Spinelli convinced the people listening that she honestly didn't know by her tone, "sorry, I didn't realize. With us just being friends I'm afraid that part of the conversation was left out though god knows why he wouldn't want to tell me he's dating the Ice Princess, you know why he didn't tell me?"  
  
Collective snickers came from behind Spinelli and satisfied that Ashley A was angered enough, she beamed proudly and headed to snack bar with a sullen expression Mikey behind her.  
  
"What now?" Spinelli demanded at Mikey's face.  
  
"Do you have to keep antagonizing her?"  
  
"If I don't, who will? Everyone's so afraid of her Daddy's money and her popularity to say one word against her."  
  
"And if T.J. is dating her?"  
  
Spinelli paused, her throat suddenly contracting, then without a single give away to how she felt, "So what if he is?"  
  
That comment got more than a few peoples attention, including a smug Ethan Campbell.  
  
"I was never his girlfriend, only his friend. He can date whom he likes even Frosty Cheerleaders."  
  
"Spinelli..."  
  
"No, Mikey. I am tired of people tip-toeing around the subject," Spinelli's voice raised another level, "I am his friend. Not girlfriend. Not object of affection. And certainly not his lover," Mikey blushed at her words, "so why should I care who he dates? Do you see me holding a leash?"  
  
"Say it a little louder, Spin, I don't think people in Switzerland heard you." T.J.'s presence suddenly making the snack bar quiet.  
  
"Oh, hey T.J. just getting some snacks, want anything?" Spinelli asked in all innocence.  
  
"No, thanks. Glad to hear that you approve of my girlfriend," his voice tight with held in anger.  
  
"Couldn't approve more, lord knows its time someone defrosted her Worship," slapping down the five bucks to pay for the sodas and one thing of popcorn Mikey took the three sodas and popcorn while Spin held two.  
  
"Mikey, can you take those sodas from Spinelli?" T.J. checked his anger; "I need to talk to her alone."  
  
Mikey nodded, then walked out of the area as T.J. pulled her along by her upper arm to the back of the fence a hundred feet from anyone while half time was going on.  
  
"Want to drop this act of being tough, cause it's starting to get on my nerves?" Spinelli wondered as they faced each other.  
  
"What has gotten into you?"  
  
"Me? You have the nerve to ask me that?"  
  
"Ask you what? Why you're acting like a complete moron in front of all those people and the scene with Ashley before? Do you want me to spell it out for you?"  
  
"I wish you would, Teej cause honestly I'm sick of guessing," Spinelli professed, "first I come home and you act like my being there is a nuisance to you, not minding that seeing Ashley A on your arm was going to throw all of us. You tell everyone that there is something you need to tell me but when I ask you say it's nothing. My very existence seems to make you mad at the whole world and I want to know why. What did I do that made you act like the self-involved jerk you've been acting like?"  
  
T.J. didn't know what to respond to first. Even though the two of them had fought in the past, usually due to Spinelli's physical way of solving problems, it had never lasted more than a day. He couldn't figure out why it angered him so much that she left without saying goodbye but it did. Maybe because his dad did the same thing or maybe because he expected her to say something when she was suddenly going to disappear from his life for months at a time. He had to keep from being mad at Gretchen and Mikey for knowing about it first, it was childish, he knew, so what exactly was he supposed to say to Spinelli.  
  
"Self-involved jerk? I wouldn't talk, Spin, you haven't been acting too altogether lately either. The hair, the clothes, a person might the idea that you are trying to be someone you're not or imitating someone," T.J. countered, "are you?"  
  
"I am not trying to act like anyone I'm not. This is a physical change, not a mental one. So I cut my hair and am wearing different clothes, it's not the end of the world that you all seem to believe it is. Maybe you just got so used to me being tough on the inside and outside that seeing me any different than what your used to isn't going over easy. So I look more like a girl now," Spinelli declared, "but I'm still me which is more than I can say for you, T.J. Detweiler."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
She took a step closer, her hand going to his hair although she was quite a height difference she managed to touch the end of his now above the ear hair cut.  
  
"It means that the T.J. I know seems to have disappeared with the vanishing red cap. The T.J. I know is gone replaced by someone I don't know and don't like. I want the T.J. I knew back and you gone. That's what I mean. He would never avoid an issue with me, he'd be as straightforward as I am. He'd tell me that his parents got divorced without making me find out from friends because he's changed so much he can't be around me. He'd tell me that my leaving and not telling him was a bad choice on my part, that it hurt and maybe he resents that I told others before him. He wouldn't make life altering decisions on his like or dislike of a certain Ashley and not tell anyone about it," Spinelli backed up one step, her eyes connecting with his, "and he'd say he misses me like I miss him."  
  
"Geez, Detweiler, can't you hear them calling your name?" Garcia called out, breaking the connection the two had as the guy ran over to them his eyes seeking T.J.'s who were trained on Spinelli.  
  
"Better go. A lot of people to cheer you on and make you a big football hero," Spinelli suggested, "wouldn't want them to think of you as anything else than what they know, right?"  
  
Garcia caught the last part of her words but only gave T.J. a come-on look before the two of them left. Hugging her arms around her waist, she leaned against the fence wishing the cold she felt had something to do with the weather.  
  
~ ~ ~ ~  
  
Another chapter!! Hurrah. Promise Chapter Four will be out soon.  
  
~ Scandal ~  
  
November 18, 2001 


End file.
